Jane Jackson Exhibition 2018

I live and work in Rock Village near Alnwick with my husband Keith and two rescue cats, Marilyn & Audrey.
As a child I was very creative and I always thought I’d be an artist when I grew up - I was even lucky enough to go to Art College for a couple of years but ironically, I ended up spending most of my working life in computing.
A completely unexpected chain of events led me to eventually fulfill my childhood dream of becoming a full-time professional artist.
In 2005 I moved back to Northumberland to start a new career in Occupational Therapy. Soon after moving I did a workshop on rag-rugging (a traditional local craft) and began creating rag-rugged wall hangings using Harris Tweed. I became obsessed with Harris Tweed and a rag-rugging technique called 'hooking.'
I started selling my hooked Harris Tweed wall hangings at the Bakehouse Gallery when it first opened in 2008.
In 2010 I bought some felting needles on a whim and developed my own (as far as I’m aware) unique method of creating needle felted 'paintings' using Harris Tweed and wool yarns.
Each piece takes between 30 and 45 hours to create and is gradually built up in layers into a needle-felted collage. The process involves repeatedly stabbing barbed needles through layers. With each pass through, the barbs on the needles snag and gradually entangle the woollen fibres until they eventually fuse into a solid felted piece.
In 2011 the Bakehouse Gallery held the first exhibition of my needle felted work - a great success and I haven’t looked back since.
When I was selected as the official poster artist for the 2013 Alnmouth Arts Festival, I finally plucked up the courage to leave my job and become a full time professional artist. I now run my own business: Bright Seed Textiles, with my husband selling cards and prints of my work.
I am mainly inspired by the landscapes, landmarks and wildlife of Northumberland and also by the colours and patterns of Harris Tweed, which themselves are often inspired by the Hebridean landscape where they are hand woven by local crofters.I exhibit in the North of England and Scotland and my work can be found in homes all over the world.